Consumer goods giant Unilever said on Thursday that it will continue to increase prices on its household, personal care and food products this year to offset rising input costs.
Price rises are expected to ease in the second half of the year.
Reporting its full-year financial results, Unilever said that its underlying sales growth in 2022 accelerated to 9.0%, with price growth of 11.3% and volumes declining by 2.1% compared with the previous year.
Turnover was up 14.5% to EUR60.1bn, including a currency impact of 6.2% and a 1.0% decrease from disposals net of acquisitions.
Underlying operating profit amounted to EUR9.7bn, up 0.5%, while the underlying operating margin was down 230 basis points to 16.1%.
In 2023, Unilever forecasts that underlying sales growth will be “at least in the upper half” of its multi-year range of 3-5%.
“We will deliver only a modest improvement in underlying operating margin in the full year, as we plan for another year of increased investment, and with cost inflation remaining high, underlying operating margin will be around 16% in the first half,” the company added.
Unilever’s brands include Ben & Jerry’s, Comfort, Domestos, Dove, Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lux, Vaseline and Wall’s.
